


The Baddest of Wolves

by scifi (orphan_account)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, F/M, yes i know baddest isn't a world... just roll with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 14:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21321601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/scifi
Summary: How Rose Tyler came to remember that she was Bad Wolf-[originally written in 2014]
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Baddest of Wolves

**Author's Note:**

> hiya! this fic was originally written sometime in 2014 over on wattpad (i'm called warpdrive over there) but i wanted to move a few fics from my teen years over to ao3 bc i guess i'm a little bit sentimental?

It was the thirty-sixth hour and Rose Tyler was beginning to tremble. Not the type that you got from nerves or being in the cold too long - these trembles wracked through her body, unable to be suppressed, they disrupted her thoughts and her everything. She was helpless, trembling as she curled up in the corner of a dank concrete room, head buried in her arms as she tried her hardest to make them stop. Of course, all attempts were futile.

Beside her, settled on the damp floor of the room, the Doctor had an arm wrapped protectively around his companion as he sat - useless - as she trembled and writhed in pain. The bouts of sickness came in waves and after over a day, she had worsened. The pleas for help had ceased into endless trembles and the Doctor didn't know what was worse. It was his fault once again, taking the TARDIS to the right place but definitely the wrong time. He had wanted to take Rose to see the floating mountains of Gaeliumn III and picnic on one of those very mountains. He had imagined a checked red and white blanket next to a waterfall that cascaded into the air. Butterflies would flutter around them and they would share sandwiches and champagne before watching the sun set over the mountains in each other's arms. The Doctor had planned all that but now it could never happen, he had made and error and came a thousand years too early when Gaeliumn was still torn up in war - visitors were far from welcome. That was how they ended up in the dank concrete room, their jail cell, their punishment for violating Gaeliumn soil.

The natives had injected them with a serum to douse them as they got taken to their prison. It wore off quick on the Doctor but for Rose... for Rose it had taken a nasty turn. The serum was lethal to human physiology; it attacked the brain and nervous system. A slow and painful death and the Doctor was helpless, no way to save the day and help Rose Tyler. All he could do was sit by her side and ease her in the final hours.

Around them their cell was bleak, a single metal cot latched onto the concrete wall which was coated in moss and root and coated in damp. One wall was jail bars, allowing them to see outside their cell. Other prisoners were in their own cells, all looking as bleak and miserable as their surroundings but the Doctor didn't care for any of them now, all he cared for was the girl in his arms; the one who trembled and the one who he was going to lose so very soon.

"Doctor?" her voice was as shaky as her body, Rose moved her head up to look at him, eyes were filled with fear; fear of what lay ahead.

"You don't have to talk," the Doctor hushed, squeezing his arm protectively around her while with the other he placed it on her cheek, thumb brushing over her soft skin gently as he felt her tremors reverberate into his hand.

"But I want to," Rose insisted, her hazel eyes were wide and looked straight into the Doctor. The way she looked at him, it sent his two hearts racing and unlike most times, it wasn't in a good way. When they had first discovered that the serum was lethal, after finding that every solution was futile, that there was no cure, Rose had come to terms that she was to die in a prison cell a billion light-years from home. What she hadn't come to terms with was how soon that would be. "Do you know what the next stage is?" she asked the Doctor, "I mean the next stage of the poison. What happens after the trembles?"

The Doctor kept his eyes locked on her for endless seconds until he forced the words out of his mouth, hating each syllable, "First comes paralysis, then hallucination and then, when the toxins become too saturated in your system you will go into cardiac arrest, followed by brain death."

"You're one to lighten the mood," Rose tried in vain to bring humour to the situation but it failed quite miserably as she watched the Doctor flinch and look away, his own eyes dark with grief yet to touch him.

"I'm sorry, so very sorry," the Doctor moved his hand from her cheek to her back, bringing her into a tight embrace, not caring if she trembled, her touch was all he needed. "Gaeliumn III, the floating mountains, I had a great date planned. And yes, I'm not going to hide the fact that it was a date. And even after this planet, we had so much more to see, so many places to visit, a whole lot more planets to have dates on."

"Stop it, stop saying goodbye," Rose insisted, face buried into the crook of his neck.

"But it is, and it is all my fault," he planted a kiss in her golden hair, pulling her tighter as her trembles increased. He never expected it to end like this, him and Rose in a prison so very far away, no one to save them, not even himself.

"You know," a new voice echoed from outside their cell, "There is a way to save her, I don't know if you can do it but there is a way."

The Doctor's head jolted up as he made contact with the voice. It was the prisoner opposite them, a man with spots on the left side of his face, greying hair and just as grey eyes. He was an Ezari, a species the Doctor had not met in centuries since running into a few on an intergalactic bar. "What do you mean? Don't you think that I have tried everything? Have you not heard me for the past thirty-six hours _trying everything?_"

"All but one, Doctor, has telepathy never come to mind?" the Ezari raised a brow that was just as grey as his eyes and hair.

"What do you mean telepathy?" the Doctor loosened his grip on Rose the slightest so he could focus on the man.

"A mind meld, you can cleanse the nervous system from inside. You are Gallifreyan right?" the man paused, "You have exceptional mind abilities."

"No one has called me that in years," the Doctor's voice was vacant as he thought of the possibility, the possibility he didn't take into consideration before.

"Timelord seemed like too ostentatious a title to call you," the man shrugged.

Ignoring his comment, the Doctor turned his attention back to Rose, her wide hazel eyes were pinned on him, "Thank you," the Doctor told the man before directing his speech to Rose, "I have never done something like this before, do you give me permission to get inside you mind? I don't do it very often, a mind is an intimate place, and the most intimate another person can go to is someone's mind."

"Us getting intimate? Now that's a change of pace," Rose couldn't help herself but grin and the Doctor took it as a yes.

"Close your eyes, you will know when I am in," the Doctor moved his hands to her face, placing each finger on strategic places on each side. He watched as her eyes closed and trembles dulled until he felt her mind open up to him, she was allowing him entrance and the Doctor closed his eyes and placed his own forehead on hers, timidly entering her mind.

He felt himself get pulled into her head, this wasn't like a typical memory transfer or probing, he wasn't the one watching from outside, picking and pulling information from her brain. This time the Doctor was completely inside her, inside Rose's conscious, him and her as one and as soon as he entered he felt the poison lash out at him. It was lethal and so very painful, making the need to save Rose stronger than before. In front of him, the warm blackness of closed eyes shifted, becoming colours, brilliant colours that should not lace her mind. The colours were of a dying mind and a dying body. The colours distracted the Doctor for the slightest moment until he felt Rose reach out to him, reaching out to his own mind.

He listened and before him the scene changed, it was the Powell estate and Rose was next to him, not showing the slightest hint of sickness.

"How did you do this?" Rose asked; reaching out to touch his arm only to find it solid, surprise filled her face.

"I don't exactly know myself. Again, never done this before. I'm in your mind; we are in your mind, like a dream of sorts and the estate are in your brain."

"Serious?"

"Completely," the Doctor wiggled his eyebrows, "Now, the toxins, I need to purge them. Not a memory purge but I need to cleanse. Got any hoses around here?"

Rose moved in front of him, "You're kidding right?"

"I have no idea; your guess is as good as mine," the Doctor grinned at her, "But right now I know one thing, just one thing is certain, I am going to save you Rose Tyler and we are going to go on our date and then explore the Universe together. You got that?"

"Alright," Rose agreed, "So can you explain this whole 'the estate is your mind,' like do certain things symbolise aspects of my brain?"

"Indeed, each flat is a separate section," the Doctor pointed out, "Motor control, subconscious, humour, recent memories, long term memories, favourites, it's all here, in a flat."

"Do you think that each section will be relevant to the person that lives in the flat? I mean it is empty here but back at home, each person was different, maybe it could be connected?" Rose sheepishly asked, the thought of trying to conceptualise this whole scenario hurt her head which in turn made no sense since they, in fact, were in her head.

"Brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Your place would be love, Mickey's motor control if you take the mechanic reference, so who would be a disease?"

Rose shut her eyes, thinking back to everyone that lived on the estate, "Old Mrs Wickerman!" Rose's eyes shot open and her lips pulled into the widest grin, grabbing the Doctor's hand and pulling him to her flat. She lived on the top floor and when they got there the door opened easily. Inside it was dank and tinged with red even though the sky itself was a nice pale blue.

"Sickness," the Doctor whispered with disgust, walking through the room, reaching out to touch the furniture which was tinted with the red, "I think I know how to do it," the Doctor told Rose, "this room is pushing its way from your mind and racing through your body, it is even trying to get to me, taint me with toxins but, well, bad idea." The Doctor closed his eyes and tilted his head back, Rose watching in curiosity as sweat beaded on his temple and his lips started to tremble. She could see that he was struggling, the image of him, struggling as slowly the red receded until the room was normal, pale sunlight filtered through the curtains but not a single drop of red remained. When he finished, the Doctor dropped to the floor, obviously exhausted, causing Rose to cross to him, propping him up with her arms.

"Did you get rid of it?" she asked, taking her hand to his face to stroke his sweat-dampened hair off his forehead.

"It is still her, still in your mind," the Doctor whispered as he regained his breath, "it is tucked away in the place where all forgotten things are. It hid itself in the memories you no longer remember."

"Where in the estate will those be?" Rose questioned, slowly leaning back as the Doctor lifted himself off the ground.

"Did you ever have someone that everyone forgot that lived there? That no one noticed or cared about?" standing up, the Doctor brushed off his jacket, a pure trivial gesture in a place that didn't technically exist.

"Well there was this one bloke, never knew his name but lived on the top as well, in the corner. Think I only saw him a handful of times-"

"Perfect!" the Doctor grabbed her hand, "take me to his flat." With that, Rose led the way with a half-run-half-walk. When they got there Rose felt a strong urge in her gut, telling her to stay away. "Ignore it," the Doctor instructed, "You subconscious still works in the mind inside your mind - that's you if you're wondering. Come on; let's see what is behind the door." Squeezing Rose's hand, the Doctor opened the door to reveal what seemed like a normal flat.

"It looks fine," Rose stated as they stepped in, the urge to stay away grew but the need to get better outweighed her gut.

"The toxins are only infecting a single suppressed memory, it is in just one room, come on," the Doctor took the lead, never letting go of her hand as he went from room to room, poking his head in before moving on. When he checked the bathroom, he removed his head with the wildest grin, "Why do you have a suppressed memory of me, a dream it looks like, where you and I are having wicked fun. Why would you suppress that?"

"Keep going," Rose ordered, giving the Doctor a stern look as her cheeks ran bright red. The Doctor couldn't help but wink at her before continuing to the last room - the bedroom. Lightly, the Doctor opened the door the slightest, sticking his head in before almost instantaneously taking it back out again and shutting the door firmly, his wicked grin was gone only to be replaced by terror. "Did you find it?" she asked eyes wide with curiosity.

"Yep," he replied, eyes bewildered.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, moving closer to the door until she had her hand wrapped around the doorknob, "What's inside?"

"Bad, bad, bad," the Doctor mumbled. In that moment his grip of the door loosened and Rose pushed past him, the door swinging open to reveal the terror inside. The room was red, redder than Mrs Wickerman's flat but something else grabbed her attention. A wolf, cream coloured wolf with golden eyes sat in the centre and Bad Wolf, those two words; they covered every surface of the room. She stared in terror and then the wolf howled.

The red room was replaced with swirling red and gold, the howl rang in her ears, never fading and never ceasing.

"Rose!" she heard the Doctor call out and he grabbed her hand but when she looked down her eyes were only met with red.

"Where are we? Where are you?" Rose frantically called out, she felt his presence but could not see anything but the swirling colours.

"In your mind, your mind without the dream. Our consciousness are in the one memory that was meant to stay sealed off." The Doctor explained in a voice so soothing that it calmed Rose enough to stop reaching out.

With that knowledge, she took another chance to look around. It was unlike anything she had ever seen; it was her mind, "Why is it so red?"

"It is the sickness, it tints it," He said and again she felt his hand brush hers, a surreal sensation when they were not exactly corporeal.

"Can you get rid of it?" Rose whispered, shutting her eyes to avoid looking at the colours before she went mad. In the distance the ever-present howl of the wolf continued, by now it was just another droning melody in the literal back of her mind.

"Yes," the Doctor hesitated, "But at a cost."

"What cost?"

"You will remember the Bad Wolf, what you became, what you did. What was contained on your head, the knowledge will surface for mere seconds but your actions, they will remain." He tapered off his words towards the end.

"Is that a bad thing?" Rose asked, opening her eyes again to face the red and gold.

"Remembering what it was like to be a god, being the Bad Wolf, I have no idea how you will take it." She could hear the caring in his voice, she could hear the confliction as he was given two situations that did not exactly tickle her fancy.

"Do it," Rose ordered, "If it saves my life then I don't care if I remember the Bad Wolf, a few seconds of omnipotence won't kill me if the only residual effects is knowing what lead you to regenerate and me to forget in the first place."

"Okay," the Doctor's voice faded and she felt her eyes fall shut as the space around her vanished, the red and gold replaced with the cream wolf with golden sparks in her eyes. It stood in front of her, staring at Rose with its head tilted to the side, it had stopped howling, and it just stared at her before padding up to Rose and pressing a paw on her chest. There it yipped at her before dashing off, running away from her into the darkness. Rose called out for the wolf to come back but it didn't listen. Instead, Rose felt her own legs work from beneath her, running in the direction that the wolf went. With each step her mind burned hotter and hotter but she kept running, chasing after the cream tail she saw in the distance. Her mind kept boiling and then as she ran in the dark she became immersed in starlight. The stars, the planets, the galaxies, the entire Universe. All that is, all there was, all there will be and all there cannot. She could see it, feel it, sense it with such intimacy and then it was gone, omnipotence had vanished, replaced with the Game Station. She was on Satellite Five, the Doctor was on the ground; his blue eyes looked at her with fear. The memories, they flooded back. She saw herself divide every atom of the Dalek fleet with the use of the time vortex. She remembered bringing Jack back to life, the infinite power and the pain. The tremendous pain. She remembered the Doctor kissing her, drawing the vortex out of her and into him and then everything went blank. Her mind went numb and she got washed over with nothingness.

— • —

"Rose? Rose? Can you hear me? Rose?" his voice dragged her out of the comforting nothingness and as soon as consciousness caressed her, Rose felt a magnificent headache blossom at the back of her head. Her eyes flew open and with a moan she rolled over, eyes landing on the Doctor's as he studied her, "Are you alright?"

"What's your definition of alright?" Rose asked, causing the Doctor to laugh, "How long was I out?"

"Together? The mind-meld lasted two hours and then you were out like a light for twelve hours after that," the Doctor reached out to stroke her blonde hair which was in limp from sleeping on it.

"It hurts," Rose moaned as she tried to sit up but the Doctor's hands gently pushed her back down.

"I know it hurts, I myself got a whopper of a headache, I can't imagine what you have been going through," he rubbed her shoulder before moving up to touch her forehead to check her temperature.

"Remind me never again to become a god just to save your life, alright?" Rose chuckled lightly and she was met with a soft smile.

"I'll definitely remember that," the Doctor then bent down, lips next to her ear so he could whisper to her, "Now I know you're hurting but it has been two days and I would really like to get out of here. Are you up to escaping?"

"I don't think I have a choice," Rose whispered back.

"Now I got my sonic back, convinced a guard that it would help make you better. I've loosened the door and all we have to do is run." The Doctor whispered, reaching for her hand to pull Rose up.

"Okay, I should be able to do that, sooner we get out of this prison the quicker we can go enjoy the floating mountains a thousand years in the future," Rose smiled at him. When she stood up she was wobbly on her feet but it quickly passed. When she felt confident upright she sent a smile to the Doctor, squeezing his hand.

Squeezing back, the Doctor winked, "Run!"


End file.
